Samuel J. Schlosser was born March 6, 1918 in Manhattan,
New York to Pauline Mett (circa 1893-?) and Max Schlosser (August 7,
1891-April, 1971). His mother was a native of Odessa, Russia, and had
immigrated to the United States in 1917. His father immigrated to the
United States from Austria in 1907 and was a native speaker of Polish.
When Samuel Schlosser enlisted in the Army on April 3, 1942, he was 147
pounds and 5'5 tall. He was unmarried, had completed four years of
college at Pratt Institute in New York, and worked as a commercial artist.

Here is a photo of Samuel Schlosser from the 1939 Pratt
Institute Yearbook.

What would the Puppetry Club look like?

Except
for mentions in newspapers from 1960 when Exterminator was found in
the Huntington Lake reservoir there is only one document that I could find
mentioning Schlosser. On October 15, 1946 Mrs. Rae M. Schlosser made an
inquiry to the National Jewish Welfare Board, probably about a death
benefit, for Samuel J. Schlosser. On a 3X5 index card Rae is listed as
"wife" and living at 1014 Avenue J in Brooklyn, New York. Not unlike many
boys facing an uncertain future as a combat soldier, at some time between
his enlistment on April 3, 1942 and Samuelís death December 6, 1943 he had
married.

As far as anything in the way of official documentation
for Samuel J. Schlosser the trail ends ignominiously there. There is a
last avenue to pursue but it isnít an easy one to follow, requiring either
that you be a family member of a deceased servicemember or knowledgeable
about the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

In the United States an investigation is conducted for
every member of the armed forces who dies, whether it be by accident,
disease, natural causes, or combat. These Individual Deceased Personnel
Files (IDPF), which can be anywhere from a page or two to hundreds of
pages, are kept in the files of whichever branch of service the man or
women was assigned to. Unless you can demonstrate you are a blood relative
of the person whose IDPF you have requested, a FOIA request must be made.
Making the request doesnít insure it will be honored unless you can
convince the person reviewing FOIA requests that you have any business
delving into the personal file of someone you donít know.

On February 28, 2013 I submitted a FOIA request for all
the boys from 463 and Exterminator who were killed. Thirteen months
later I had a reply from the United States Army Human Resources Command
and was able to download the IDPF files for all the crewmen except Howard
Wandtke, Robert Hester, Charles Turvey, and Dick Mayo. I was told that
IDPFs for the boys existed but could not be located.

Missing IDPFs are not unusual. The original paper
folders may have been requested in the past and misfiled or not returned.
They could have been lost or inadvertently destroyed. Many, not all, have
been digitalized from Microfiche which makes search, retrieval, and
distribution less onerous for family and researchers (and the Army) than
in the past.

It was from Samuel Schlosserís IDPF that I learned some
amazing things.

Newspaper reports said that all the crew had been
recovered from the airplane. A September 26, 1955 Stars and Stripes
reported, "The remains of two of the wartime airmen were recovered from a
section of the fuselage late Friday. Two other bodies were pulled from the
tail and nose sections Thursday." Other newspapers marvel at the pristine
condition of the bodies. What the IDPF for Schlosser shows is the
difference between "remains" and "bodies."

Inside Schlosserís IDPF are all the pertinent data about
Samuel J. Schlosser since he joined the Army. Between his enlistment and a
physical examination October 5, 1943 Schlosserís weight has gone up
nineteen pounds and heís grown one and a quarter inch. His build is
described as "stocky", his frame has changed from "medium" to "heavy" and
his hair color is brown.

There is a also a skeletal chart, dated December 13,
1955. On the obverse side of the chart is an exploded diagram of a
skeleton with all the uncollected remains of Samuel J. Schlosser,
collected by Exterminatorís recovery crew, blacked out.
Disturbingly, the only part of his remains not blacked out is Schlosserís
skull.

A few items of interest from Samuel Schlosserís IDPF
help round out all weíll ever know about him. His middle name is "Jack"
and he has a brother, Herbert Schlosser, who lives in East Meadow, Long
Island, at 220 Vincent Drive.

I could only uncover one other thing about Samuel
Schlosser. Further digging on the Ancestry.com website revealed that his
wife, Rae Schlosser, had remarried a man named Harold Lisses. This was
common enough during, and after, the war. I found a daughter, born
February 24, 1944, named Sandra Paula Schlosser Lisses but nothing else
about her. And thatís where the Schlosser family trail turned ice cold.
Until late April, 2018 when I was contacted by Stephen Sparks. Sparks is
married to Samuel Schlosser's granddaughter, Melissa.

I learned some interesting family history from Sparks.
Harold Lisses was killed by a drunk driver on the Long Island Expressway
May, 1972. He was helping a stranded motorist when a drunk driver, heading
in the opposite direction, lost control of his vehicle, crossed over the
center line, and struck Lisses. As a result of that accident all the
expressways on Long Island were equipped with medians and barriers. Rae
Schlosser Lisses passed away from cancer shortly before September, 2001.
She was 87 years old.

Also of interest is that, though US Census documents say
that Samuel Schlosser's father, Max, died April, 1971 (and is silent about
his mother, Pauline), Stephen Sparks told me that Schlosser's parents were
both killed in an automobile accident in the 1920s when Samuel and his
brother Herbert were very young. The boys were raised by their aunt,
Marion Ortenberg. Both Herbert and Marion are listed on Samuel's
enlistment papers as Next of Kin. There is no mention of any parents.

A little further digging turned up a Marion Ortenberg
who lived from August 18, 1887 to January 1, 1977. A death record for her
gives her zip code as 10022 and this coincides with an address in the
Bronx for Ortenberg given on Schlosser's enlistment papers: 410 E. 57th
St.

Stephen Sparks also provided me with a photo, probably
taken at their wedding, of Samuel and Rae Schlosser. Note that Schlosser
is wearing a saber for some reason.

As Stephen Sparks said to me several times, what marks
Samuel Schlosser's time on earth is not so much what he did during his
life but the heritage of his DNA. Schlosser has a daughter, two
grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Besides the monument to Exterminator's crew at
Huntington Lakereservoir, there is one other thing marks his passage - Schlosser's name on a
memorial to citizens of New York who were killed in our nation's wars.

(Monument at Rockaway Beach in New York
City bearing the name of Samuel J. Schlosser)